Who is the ChiefHomeOfficer?

YOU are - or anyone who works from home. Whether you're a full-time 1099er, a corporate teleworking W-2er, a part-time eBayer, or any head-of-household handling family, finances and affairs from a corner desk - and in search of a little balance in the home office, then ChiefHomeOfficer's your destination.
Think of Chief Home Officer.com as LifeHacker meets the home office - no matter what home office you run. Entrepreneurs will discover SOHO 2.0 business insight. Teleworkers will learn leading-edge remote work strategies. will spot tips, tales and links on balance. And those considering making the leap into home officing will unearth equal parts reality and validation. Explore. Learn. Return.

The SOHO Sherpa…

ChiefHomeOfficer is your SOHO Sherpa - a guide to all the things that make the Small Or Home Office (SOHO) work. Since 1993, we've chronicled the work-at-home adventure. Today, the site offers honest and occasionally humorous insights, tips, tech/product reviews, and commentary that cut through the "Make Millions From Home" promise and just lay down the real skinny on a lifestyle people can work and live with.

Want to learn more? If you work from home, want to, or are a corporate marketer hoping to talk to those who do, email jeff [at] chiefhomeofficer dot com.

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I was editing an ezine for a friend/client today and found myself guilty-as-charged of many of the things he was saying executives should not do. I often work nights and weekends (it’s Sunday morning as I write this). I’ll often place the cordless phone on or beside the kitchen table at supper time, just so I can see who’s calling and whether an interruption is necessary. I carry my BlackBerry to ballgames and on family trips. I take my laptop on family vacations. And I often choose hotels based on whether they have free Internet access.

Does this make me a home office boor? Does this make me a parental bore?

I often ask my wife and family if I’m too tethered to the home office, and they don’t seem to mind (would they really tell me if they did mind? I’d like to think so). And I surveyed the landscape and timeclock of this home officer’s workstyle, and realized it’s not so out of whack – at least from the perspective of making time for family. For example, last week, I ditched work early twice to take my son to hockey practice. I rode bikes to school with my youngest, and swam with her after school. I had lunch twice with my wife. And had drinks at 3p Friday with a close friend. And except for those evenings when the kids’ extracurriculars interfere, we almost always have dinner together.

During none of those events did clients call, clamoring for some article who’s deadline was blown or some assignment in need of a writer. And on almost every occasion, my cell or cordless phone was nearby for me to scan Caller ID – just in case the call truly required my attention.

Home office work (whether as an entrepreneur or teleworker) doesn’t mean you have to be a slave to the office. But it does mean you can reap the benefits of time-shifting. Use the time you would otherwise blow on a commute bonding with family (in our household, I typically prep the kids for school every day, and drive carpool when it’s our turn). I work nights and weekends – typically during hours when the family’s asleep. And because I spend hours during the day with the family, they indulge me when that call comes at supper time – and I HAVE to beg a few minutes’ work.

Frankly, this brief survey of my workstyle reveals to me an interesting reality: It appears I’m more beholden to my wife and kids than to my clients. I have only one thing to say: Sorry, clients 😉